Age of Sigmar: Week One Observations.

Age of Sigmar has divided the community. With that statement I will probably be in contention for the stating the obvious award 2015. But, I think it is a good step forward for a stagnant Fantasy gaming system, put it this way, I have played 5 games of Age of Sigmar, I doubt I have ever played 5 games of Fantasy. With that, I feel I have discovered a few hidden depths of the game either by myself or by proxy that I am going to go through now.

Angels Looking for Redemption

I think it comes as a surprise to no one that I am mainly an Eldar player. So when it came to a cityfight event in the local store this weekend, I thought I would go completely at odds to the norm and try out the new Blood Angels. I don't have a huge force, but it would give me a chance to break the seal on the new book and look at the game from a different perspective.

The Green Menace!

Hey guys!  Craig's already covered it but I thought i'd add my own report on the great 600pts game we had on Thursday night.  Despite the way it went (south, quickly) we both had a really good time and learnt a bunch of stuff about our armies.

See you after the break!

A WAAAAGGGHHHH TO FAR!

Hey guys Craig here.

Today's post is all about how my Orks and Matt's Dark Angels faced off against each other.

As I don't have a huge force fro my Orks (as of yet) a small 600pts game was on the cards. I knew that at this points cost Matt couldn't get a lot. Mine wasn't a huge amount but I still felt confident going into this small but no doubt bloody battle.

Matt's List was (roughly)

Command Squad all with bolters. 1x Apothecary, 1x Librarian 3 x normal guys plus the banner of devastation (Salvo 2/4 Bolters)

1 x 10 man tact squad, all with bolters
1x 5 man tact squad 1 with plasma
3 Black knights with plasma and grenade launcher
5 Vets tooled with meltas and combi wepons.

My List

Grukk Face Rippa
Weird Boy level 2

1 x 12 boys, Boss nob, Eavy armour, Big Shoota
1 x 11 boys, Boss nob, Eavy armour, Big Shoota and Trukk (Trukk had Red paint job, Boarding Planks + Big Shoota)
1 x Deff Copta, twin linked Rocket Launcha
1 x killa Kan, Big Shotta, Clan claw.

We were using the objective cards second time using these bad boys. I was like a kid at Christmas using his new toys.

Turn one I charged my Trukk straight up the right flank, Moved my Deffcopta out of the way of his black knights and the Killa can clanked forward towards. the banner of infinite shooting. To say Ork shooting is appalling is an understatement. I hit with a massive NOTHING. However I did manage to turbo boots my trukk a bit more. At least i did something in my shooting phase.

Matt's turn one. was just the beginning of the end. He took out my trukk and half of the unit with it. Making them flee and left Grukk all on his own to face the 5 man tact squad. He also managed to take a hull point of my Kila Kann and a wound of my Deffcopta.

My Turn two shooting was still underwhelming. however I did manage to take out a black knight. with my deffcopta. Then I thought my luck was going to change Grukk was in charge range of the 5 man tact squad. The beast of Sanctus Reach was going to get in a make a small mess of these imperial suck ups. O how I was wrong. in over watch he took two wounds. (Double 6 on the plasma to hit) got into combat I killed two Dark Angels and the unit finished me off. considering his is suppose to be a beast in combat I was a little disappointed. Maybe the dice gods were testing my patients.

Matt's Turn two. My unit of boys were murdered with bolter fire including the Weirdboy. Matt's veterans finished off the Killa kan with ease. The deffcopta died. All I had left was 4 boys from the trukk that had blown up. I think as a mercy killing Matt left his black knights within charge range to see how his knights would fare. After two round of combat the orks had finally been curb stomped.

We tallied up the victory points and I had 1 point. Matt had somewhere into double figures. Safe to say Matt cleaned up big time.

What I have learnt from this battle is to buy either another trukk to get both units of boys up top quick. or buy a looted wagon 7pts more and cannot be killed by bolter fire. I am looking forward to playing Matt again and this time Grukk will have his revenge.

Untill next time guys.

Tale of Many Gamers: Like a Shooting Star(weaver)

I know it's not the end of the month, but I got a head of steam and a chock load of motivation and piled it into this here Starweaver. It was what I was working on over the Bank Holiday weekend, and the last weekend saw me finish up the crew, gun and base to put this one to bed.

Tale of Many Gamers - The Return of the Mojo!

Tale of Many Gamers check-in two is tomorrow morning, and for me its bitter sweet.  Last check-in I was able to enter two models, shown above, but this time I've missed the deadline.  On the flip side, the model i'm working on has really helped me get back on the horse with my DA and painting in general after about a month of almost complete hobby blackout.

Tale of Many Gamers: Trouping the Colour

Another month, and another unit has been painted. This time, it is my first Harlequin Troupe, and the first half of the Cast of Players formation.

Milestones

I should have done this post at the start of the month, but this blog has hit a few milestones and also been featured on a Podcast.

Craftworlds: Let the Sky Fall

At the start of the month, I wrote a blog post about how I would adjust the (then) current codex to correct some of the issues that I had with the book. Well, now the new Codex has dropped and I thought, why not go back and see how close I was?

Mecca Shenanigans!

So, Tuesday came and went (a week ago now).  It was awesome.  We took a trip to Warhammer World to meet Sam from Adeptus Terra Podcast and to have some games, something the three of us are sorely staved of.

The day started out with the obligatory road trip and search for on-site parking, a Herculean feat in and of itself with WHW under renovations, and ended with new friendships forged and lessons learnt.

Boy That Knight Hurts

Hey guys Craig again


Some of you may be aware the guys here at the Path of the Artisan had our first blog trip to the Mecca of geek, Warhammer World. It started off fairly early with breakfast and chit chat whilst we waited for our fourth member, Who just happened to be Sam from the Adeptus Terra podcast.



After introductions we decided who took on who. I was pitted against Matt with his Death Wing, a Contemptor dreadnought and to make things worse a Knight Titan. For some reason Matt decided to give me first turn which threw me off completely. I knew that either turn one or turn two his guys would be dropping on me with twin linked everything, So maybe this was the reason I had first turn.

After looking at my deployment I could see I had deployed like a NEWB. I had deployed back to front all of my fast stuff at the back whilst my footsloggers was at the front ready for a pounding from the Knight.

This is exactly what had happened. First turn I couldn't shoot anything just moved everything forward. Matts turn one and nothing had come down, then it started raining imperial shells on my Necrons head. All I can say is thank goodness for the Decurion other wise it could of been over a lot sooner.

My turn two things moved slowly forward again. only a few model in shooting range of the knight and the contemptor. So I tried my luck. Nothing!!! I know that obviously I need 6's to glance it to death but when both the dreadnought and the knight both have invuns and I need 6's things needed to be bad for Matt.

Turn two for Matt and everything came down and it came down hard. Belial and his cronies came from the right, his deathwing knights didn't come come they went into ongoing reserves and another unit of normal terminators for some reason deployed in his table half. I thought now was the time to make my death marks work so they came in and tried to shoot them off the board in one go, AND....... nothing. not even a bean. So obviously Matt shot them off the board all but one. He passed his leadership test and stayed there all on his lonesome. Belial and his boys took off a view warriors nothing too special. 

My turn 3 and I needed to do something special other wise this was going to be a slow game inevitably me dying. So I charged my scarabs and my wraiths into Belial and his terminators thinking one round will do it and move on. I was so wrong. I focused most of my shooting on his knight and contemptor only taking a hull point off here and there. These guys can take a boat load of punishment. Combat was here now and this surely had to be Belial's time to die. Unfortunately not. My wraiths and Belial struck at the same time it just seemed that nothing was going to die on ether side. If anything my scarabs did all the killing not the wraiths. After this combat nothing went my way at all.

The Knight rained down shell after shell and model after model was being taken off. In close combat Matt's death wing knights came into combat to help about Belial nothing really survived after that. I kept trying to chip off hull points of his big nasties but nothing was putting them down, so I decided to charge him with my lord. Necron overlord with the voidreaper. (+2 Str, Armourbane,Fleshbane and master crafted) If I could survive the initial St D attacks he was dying and fast. but he had the same fate as most things that gets in a Knights way, DEATH!!! Shortly after this we called it for lunch probably at the right point before all my models got taken off.

The game ended and it was 7-4 to Matt. Thank goodness for tactical objectives otherwise it could of been a white wash.

So things I have learnt from this game with Necrons. Always prioritize your targets, I was going for the contemptor and the Knight when really it should been one or the other. Send scarabs after vehicles and warriors after other man sized things. Even though they have the ability to glance vehicles to death scarabs can do it better and faster.

Things I have learnt from the Knight Titan is either kill it or leave it. I thought with all of my glancing shots that the knight would of died and died quick, however this was not the case. I needed to prioritize my targets. I should of took out either the knight or the dreadnought first then moved on to the next.

Also at all costs make sure to not get into contact with the Knight unless I have initiative 4 or higher and can kill it in one go. At the minute I have nothing specially as the Necrons are all initiative 2 (apart from wraiths with whip coils)

 I certainly had fun playing Matt especially as this was my first game with the tactical objectives. I can safely say the 40k bug has bit me and bitten me hard.

Until next time guys.

Craftworld Problems, or How I would adjust the Codex

So, rumours are abound that a new Eldar codex is on the horizon, and with a lot of product vanishing from the website, I'm kind of expecting something to happen.

To be the first 6th Edition Codex to be updated makes some sense, the Harlequins have their own codex now so need to be removed like what happened with the Dark Brethren, and also, Eldar are a Psychic heavy race, and at the moment, their rules in the new Psychic phase are scruffy and their punch lightweight. But here are a few thoughts on what I would change.

Blog Vs Podcast

It's been about 12 months since my last pilgrimage to Warhammer World, so I though it was about time that this injustice was put to rights. Myself, Matt and Craig made the journey and also invited Sam from the Adeptus Terra Podcast to come and join us for a day of gaming.

Post Carnage: Eldar Vs Necrons

I took the Harlequins to the tabletop for the first time today against Craig's Necrons. It was an excuse for me to use the Heroes Path formation and use the new miniatures for the first time along with trying out a few counter tactics for taking on Necrons.

WiP: Shadowseer

A quick work in progress for my Shadowseer. I quite like the black and red quarters and it is leading me to question my colour scheme for the troupes. Initially, they were just going to be red and blue in different variations to represent the three troupes, but now I am thinking of going red/black, blue/black and red/blue. It's probably something I'm going to be pondering as I aim to finish this model at the weekend.

Formations

Formations are fast becoming a big deal with the hobby, especially with the advent of the Necron Decurion Formation, which is made of smaller formations.  It's a confusing and rule packed system Me, Alun and Craig have had a good few discussions about, including but not limited to;

How do they work?
Do they cover FoC slot?
Do they count as allies?
Can I take more than one?

Those questions we've pretty much answered now and Alun is making strides with this new system with the aforementioned Decurion and some of the new Harlequin ones.  Seeing how he's using them and how they fit into a force has got me interested so I've decided to jump on board the Formation express!

Harlequins: Death Jester

I've recently wrapped up the painting on the Death Jester, and with it the second part of the Heroes Path formation.

Army Showcase: Craftworld Ulthwé

After tidying the house a few weeks ago, I decided to get my Eldar army out of the case and just take a visual audit of what I have painted to try and give me an idea of where I want to go with it in the future, Whilst doing this, I took a few photos too, which I would like to share with you.

WAAAAGGGGHHHH at the Moon

Hey Guys, Girls and Xenos

Craig here with another blog post.

As most of you will be aware our local store is rapidly approaching the first hand in for Tale of Many Gamers.  This year I have vouched to stick this to the end and at all costs.

The time scales for this year seem to be more manageable so I can really focus on the finer details and getting things right. Rather than rushing things and messing up. One unit from scratch ready for the fist Saturday of  every month right up until December.

If you read some of my other posts you will see that my spark has been reignited with 40K (which I thought would never happen) and all it took was some meat heads known as Orks. So this TOMG I will be entering the Bad Moons Orks and making them look angry and bad.

I started off with a squad of Nobz one of my favourite units at the moment in the Ork book. They have the diversity of being a smash and grab unit with klaws and choppas or can shoot you with many different things. (Rokkits, Burnas or more bullets). On the plus side if they need more speed you can give them a trukk or to make them uber tough a bike.

Obviously giving them a Waagghhh banner will help massively who doesn't need +1 WS.  Also giving one guy a kombi burna to kick out a few wounds before they actually get into combat is always a plus.

I can honestly say putting this unit together was a joy. Every last part of the 5 guys was awesome. The only conversion on them is the banner. I thought these guys deserved a nice big banner. I was scratching my head thinking what have I got that is big enough for these guys. Then it clicked OGRES. So I rummaged through my bits and bobs to find a brilliant huge tattered banner. I think it looks brilliant probably the stand out feature of this unit,

I have started on the unit focusing for the moment on the skin tones. I can't make up my mind f the need to be vibrant and stand our or whether they need to be toned down. I do like the look of the skin so far, but something is missing and I can't put my finger on it.

Next week I will have more pictures of these lovely gitz and will have hopefully figured out my bloomin skin scheme.

Until next time.

Craig

Tale of Many Gamers: The Heroes Path

It's that time again where I try and expand my army as part of the local Tale of Many Gamers event under yet another new manager. As Matt said in his previous post, this time we are only having to submit one unit per month until the end of the year. Something that is easier, yet harder to achieve in equal measure.

Toxic Shock

The Toxicrene, a beast of deadly poisons, horrific assault potency and fear for anyone unfortunate enough to be in its way, including the aspiring hobbyist! I was going to post this a while ago but kept forgetting.  Why?  Simple, I wanted this model out of my mind.

Return of the ToMG

Tale of Many Gamers has returned!  But, what is it?

Our local GW store holds and annual army building/painting event called Tale of Many Gamers, in which the local hobby community is challenged to produce a certain number of built and painted units in a set time frame.  It usually runs for about 5 months and has the goal of getting people to end up with a nicely painted and based force.

Myself, Alun and Craig are all entering this year and have pledged to say the course, something not all manage.  (Myself and Alun have endured hell to stick to it each time we entered though :) )

Leonardo da Orky

Hey guys Craig here again

As some of you may of read in my last post. I was going to enter my local GW painting contest. Which was a first for me, as personally, I don't think my painting is up to scratch.

List Building: Rule of Cool

If you walked into a Games Workshop store and asked the friendly shopkeep which army should you start, you are more than likely going to be asked one question, "Which army do you like the most?". It makes me beg the question, why is this the only time we take the look of an army into the equation when building a force?

Harlequins: Solitaire

The Harlequins are here, and being an Eldar fan, I have obviously got swept up in the hype. The amazing Solitaire model was the first one that I got hold of and he had the honour of being painted first.

Etiquette my dear Watson

Hey Guys  Craig here.

Just a quick post following on from Matt's section regarding etiquette.

We all know that learning the glorious games of 40k and WFB can be a long process but playing a game can be just as long, especially when your opponents wander off or are on the phone. Here is my top 5 rundown of things not to do whilst in the heat of battle.

Come the Apocalypse!

This weekend saw the inaugural Apocalypse game of 2015 in our local store and my oh my what a game it was!  12,500pts a side, Dark Angels and Imperial Guard vs Eldar, Necrons, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard and Grey Knights.

Both myself and Alun were in attendance and as usual we were facing off against each other.  Alun was Warlord of the mixed team and I was a mere cog in the Unforgiven machine.

Necrons Arise

I had my first run with the new Necron rules yesterday, against Matt's Charcaradons, the result was a decisive victory for the metal zombies. I used the Decurion detachment, and believe me when I say, there is not a single reason not to use that when taking Necrons.

Different Strokes

Hey Guys, Craig here.

This is my first post of many to come here.

I, unlike Alun and Matt, don't really understand the concept of 40k and struggle to grasp why so many people are hooked. In some sense this is a good thing as it keeps my bank balance healthy. However on the other side I look at some of the models and the excitement it brings people in my local community and think I wish I could get on board.

With this in mind I was keen to see what the next painting competition topic will be. I didn't have to wait long as our very own Matt cleaned up with his spectacular flyrant.

These are the kind of models that really drive me to get involved in 40k, the thing that puts me off is the local community. Don't get me wrong they're not all bad, same as any other gaming community, but we have some main offenders that make it tough to enjoy a game of 40k.

However.........

I am what you would call an OK painter. Nothing of mine stands out and I never enter painting competitions at my local GW because I normally have to try and beat the standard set by Matt above or Alun's mind blowing Eldar or Crisp looking Blood Angels. Which can be daunting but I have decided that this will be my first entry into the comp and try and raise my own standards of painting.

So watch this space for pics and details on how I do.

Now down to the nitty gritty. I am an avid WFB player. I love everything about it. The diverseness of the world, the lore, the models and mostly the characters. There are some massive names in this universe. Unless some of you have been hiding under a rock will know the End times are upon us and have brought some massive rules and models with it

This has shaken the Warhammer Fantasy world to it's core. Who would of thought 12 months ago we would have:

• Nagash & Mannfred von Carstein, Arkhan the Black and Neferata
• Glottkin & Maggoth Lords 
• Malekith (no new model but kick ass rules)
• Karl Franz The Ascendant (no new model but awesome rules)
• Thanquol and Boneripper

Apart from Glottkin and the Maggoth lords they are all big big names that have been around for a fair few editions. 

Sure people will think that the days of Hero Hammer are upon us and you need to have a big General to lead your army to victory, which may be the case, but make sure he can shake off a few cannon shots. This for me opens up the diverse world of WFB even more. You can run massive hordes to bog down Nagash. You can use a Dwarf gun line and take down Glottkin or you pit two colossal characters against each other and the victor claiming bragging rights. They each have there own specialty whether it be extra movement, better magic or a beast in combat. These new shiny Characters and models can only be good for an already great edition of fantasy.

I personally do not think that the end times is over. There is too much left unanswered. No Bretonians, No Orcs and Goblins and for me most importantly no Ogres. Saying this, we are currently missing one of the most important characters going in the Warhammer universe, Archaon. Surely this chosen son of Chaos has some part to play in either the saving or the destruction of the world.

I for one am hoping that he comes back with a BANG.

Cheers

Craig

A New Perspective!

It's been a good long while since I blogged, I found it increasingly difficult to find different things to talk about that would engage anyone, so the opportunity to contribute here was perfect.  It helps all three of us get our thoughts out and keeps the space flowing in new content.

Much to Alun's chagrin I'm the resident hardline Imperial :)  I collect Dark Angels (my hobby love), Carcharodons, Imperial Knights and Inquisition, although I'm branching out as you'll see below.

Before i launch headlong into talking about my current projects i'd just like to get something off my chest, which Alun touched on in his last post.

Evolution

It's been a while hasn't it? I've been a bit fatigued with the hobby over the past 6 months and haven't really had the drive to do too much in the hobby. But, this is a new year, and a new Necron Codex and a Harlequin release is starting to stoke the fires again.

However, I've recently had a bit of a retrospective look at my progress in the local painting competition and would like to share a few thoughts.